The social network GeoConnectPeople (http://geoconnectpeople.org), focused on the popularization of geoinformation sharing, has been growing quickly. Every day, more and more users access the network to exchange ideas, find professionals and discuss several topics linked to the sector. In one month, GeoconnectPeople reached more than 2 thousand members and 70 groups. Geoprocessing, ArcGIS-Brazil, Cartography and Geography are the groups with the largest number of participants.
The creation of groups is open on GeoconnectPeople network, and anybody connected to it can manage a community, in order to discuss technical subjects, market trends, legislations or patterns of geospatial data. About 85% of the members of GeoConnectPeople are from Latin America, mainly from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela.
For Emerson Granemann, director and publisher of MundoGEO Group, “the formation of networks can help the international community to get to know one another better and to share experiences. The globalization is reaching all of the sectors and the market of geospatial solutions is not an exception”. According to him, the social networks propitiate a facilitated meeting place for people. It is “important for the community to meet at physical spaces, such as in events and courses, but the virtual spaces can also break barriers in relation to the difficulties faced by taking trips or the difficulties related to lack of time, besides, they allow the fast spread of information”, points out Mr.Granemann.
Having a format which is unpublished in the world, GeoConnectPeople is driven to the geospatial technologies users that want to share experiences, contacts and information on applications and tools linked to the sector, such as geoprocessing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), cartography, land surveying, photogrammetry, remote sensing, geodesy, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Location Based Services (LBS), Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), etc..
Besides, the GeoConnectPeople is totally integrated with other more generic networks, such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Posting pictures, the members can use their own accounts in Flickr. Furthermore, there is also the option of joining the net by using an account from Gmail, Yahoo, Twitter or Facebook. The content posted in GeoconnectPeople is also easily shared in MySpace, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and Digg.
The option for the menus in English aims to turn GeoConnectPeople global, even if inside of the groups local subjects are approached. “The members that want to create groups inside the net can opt for a specific language”, states Eduardo Freitas, the net’s mediator. “The option for the ‘structures’ in English has come to be appropriate, because it allows the interaction among people from the most diversified cultures”, adds Mr. Freitas.